It's been a very busy Christmas and New Year with a friend staying and and my visits to Blogland have been fewer than I would have wished. I have been moved by the emails asking if I am okay. I am. I'd love to say that my posts will be more frequent during January and I hope they will be but after another visitor (hopefully arriving before the Big Storm arrives this evening) leaves I shall be off to the Mainland for most of the rest of the month. I am hoping to catch up with one of The Girls from Napier with whom I usually travel New Zealand playing croquet.
A number of my presents were red liquid from the fun to the very serious:
This one came in very handy when I had some small visitors (and, of course, Mum and Dad and the rest of the adults joined in).
And a very dear friend mocked my attitude to Christmas with this gift:
I wish for you all a splendid 2015.
Welcome back... Sorry you are missing the hot days here, but glad you have plenty of visitors, and suitable entertainment...i.e.wine
ReplyDeleteThanks Fi. Just had a night of hurricane force winds. I would love to be in New Zealand just now.
DeleteHahaha! The 'bah humbug' gift is just perfect. And I love that first bottle of red!
ReplyDeleteYes, sans serif, I thought so too. The label certainly is different.
DeleteThat island of yours seems more and more like a trampolin to me (people, including yourself, constantly landing there and taking off again). - You should write your address on those little paper planes and send them off in a storm and see if they come back too!
ReplyDeleteMonica anything I'd have let loose in the wind yesterday evening would be over on the mainland by now. There was a time when many people rarely left the Island except to go away as youngsters to work and come back to retire. That has all changed.
DeleteUntil I read this post I had no idea that you are a wino. But now it all falls into place. As NZ produces some of the best wines in the world, I can see what drew you there. And you also like Glasgow which is so famous for its winos.Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteYP, he puts me in the shade. He cooked a good supper for me and I provided the wine. It was the very best the CO-OP in Stornoway had. It went down a treat all three or four bottles. Graham helped me sample them.
DeleteWell that proves it. Two winos slurring the night away together. It is a wonder that the burghers of Lewis didn't descend on Chez Graham with burning torches chanting their temperance messages.
DeleteYP New Zealand wine certainly does have its attractions. That's not quite how I remember it Adrian but then there might be a good reason for my lack of memory. As for the good burghers of Lewis YP they would leave us alone because they wouldn't realise that I also have a good supply of malt whisky (even though I don't drink it) with which to slake their thirst.
DeleteIt is always nice to see a post come through stating that the blogger is Still Here ~ in a literal and virtual sense. Happy New Year to you too GB.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol. Whilst I have ideas and a camera and what passes for a mind I shall be Still Here.
DeleteHappy New Year from Loch Creran. That doesn't look right. I'm wending my way to Oban from Fort William and am just east of the new bridge. I will be for a few days it's nice here.
ReplyDeleteI hope, Adrian, that after last night you still think it's nice there.
DeleteLovely to have you back, Graham. I've missed you!
ReplyDeleteAw shucks, Frances, you say the nicest things.
DeleteYou're still here? Delighted to hear it! Hope you had a great Christmas! xoxo DeeDee
ReplyDeleteThanks DeeDee I had a most enjoyable Christmas.
DeleteIs that a packet of seeds that say "Humbugs"? If so, I would love to have that. Someone gave you that because of the name, I know, but wow, those flowers...I love them!
ReplyDeleteKay humbugs are a striped boiled sweet made of sugar and condensed milk (do you call them sweets or sweeties in the US? I get confused because they are called lollies in New Zealand) - in this case mint humbugs. These particular ones are made for and sold by Dobbies which is a Scottish Garden Centre chain. That's why they have flowers on the box. The flowers are Sweet Peas which are beautifully scented.
DeleteI wasn't worried about you, Graham; I just thought that you are a) busy with your offline life and b) your internet connection prevents you from having much joy with blogging.
ReplyDeleteMmmm, porto!! It's been a while since I last had some of that. I'm not a wine person, but porto is different! At the company where I used to work until 2010, we had a delivery guy who sort of fancied me. He was Portoguese and when he returned from his summer holiday in Portugal, he brought me a bottle of porto. I wonder what became of him and who gets his porto bottles now.
Yes Meike I have a fondness for port or porto especially with cheese. Perhaps your delivery guy has pined away and no one gets his bottles now.
DeleteRed liquid in abundance during the season....hmmmm..... no wonder you were missing in action there for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see you back...I do miss reading your posts.
Lovely presents! and glad you are OK. I haven't been much in blogland myself recently, also very busy, but I am trying to keep a foothold! Happy new year.
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